Senior Care Blog

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Life Insurance Policies Abandoned by Seniors

January 10, 2013 / Chris Orestis

The Long Term Care Benefit conversion option is designed to serve a large but ignored population. This large population of middle market life insurance policy owners with polices under $500,000 of death benefit value end up either lapsing or surrendering their in-force life insurance because they can no longer afford to pay the premiums and/or they are on a Medicaid spend down path. Owners of small face policies with an immediate need for long term care are not ideal candidates to purchase a long term…

How The ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Affects Health Care: Six Questions

December 26, 2012 / Chris Orestis

By Mary Agnes Carey KHN Staff Writer Dec 04, 2012 The impending “fiscal cliff” is a package of automatic spending cuts and tax hikes set to kick in next month unless President Barack Obama and Capitol Hill agree on a way to stop them. Negotiations to avert the cuts are ongoing and both sides have exchanged offers. The president and congressional Democrats have said they will reduce spending on entitlements, including Medicare, if Republicans will agree to increase tax rates on the highest earners. While…

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Other Options as Long Term Care Insurers Abandon the Marketplace

December 11, 2012 / Chris Orestis

ProducersWeb.com By Chris Orestis Life Care Funding Group Less than 20 years ago, there were dozens of major insurance companies selling long-term care insurance (LTCI). Today, there are under 30. The paradox is, why, just as baby boomers started turning 65 at a pace of 10,000 per day, is the LTCI market shrinking instead of booming? The list of companies that have abandoned the LTCI market is a who’s-who of insurance industry giants: MetLife, Prudential, AIG (American General), Guardian, UNUM, Allianz and CNA, to name…

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Insurance Conversion, Long Term Care

Family Caregiver Provides Financial Support to Loved Ones Despite Limited Resources

December 9, 2012 / Chris Orestis

Care Improvement Plus and National Family Caregivers Association survey underscores the growing demands placed on those caring for loved ones with complex health care needs BALTIMORE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Seventy-five percent of people caring for Medicare beneficiaries with complex health care needs have an annual income of less than $25,000, yet a majority provide financial support to their loved one, according to a new survey by Care Improvement Plus and the National Family Caregivers Association. Financial worries, diabetes care and care coordination are among the greatest challenges facing…

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Cost of Care

Low Consumer Confidence in Funding Retirement Care

December 4, 2012 / Chris Orestis

As published in BenefitsPro By Paula Aven Gladych Most consumers aren’t sure they will be able to cover their long-term care costs in retirement. That lack of confidence increases as people age. A report by The Insured Retirement Institute found that 28 percent of Generation X are confident they will be able to meet their long-term care costs, but only 24 percent of Baby Boomers have the same opinion. “There’s an out-of-sight, out-of-mind mentality regarding long-term care,” IRI President and CEO Cathy Weatherford said. “As…

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Elder Care, Retirement Funding

What is Long Term Care?

November 17, 2012 / Chris Orestis

Seniors and their families are already struggling with the costs of everyday living, if you add the costs of long term care to the picture it is a back breaking scenario for most Americans. A critical element of preparing for the costs of long term care is to understand the variety of “Private Pay” sources that can give you access to funds designed to help them pay for the various forms of long term care. Statistics show that the majority of people do not understand…

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Long Term Care, Retirement Funding

Seniors Don’t Want to Surrender Life Insurance and go on Medicaid

November 11, 2012 / Chris Orestis

The impact of the long term care funding crisis is felt most directly by the middle class. People that have worked their entire lives and have planned responsibly for the future through the purchase of a life insurance policy find themselves penalized when they reach the point that they require long term care. Compared to the 153 million Americans that own a life insurance policy, less than 10 million own a long term care insurance policy. Medicaid is the default funder of long term care…

Converting Life Insurance into Long Term Care Plan Protects Consumers

October 17, 2012 / Chris Orestis

Consumer Rights Middle class policy owners and their families are caught in the ironically unfortunate position of not being poor enough to automatically qualify for Medicaid, but they are not wealthy enough to access the care they need with enough out-of-pocket funds. In America, the vast middle class market is financially punished for being caught “in the middle” when they reach the point that a loved one requires long term care. When a family has a life insurance asset to work with, the ultimate decision…

New Financial Tools Help Seniors Stay at Home

September 28, 2012 / Chris Orestis

September 27th, 2012 | by Alyssa Gerace Published in Reverse Mortgage Daily There’s a national movement to facilitate seniors’ desire to remain in their homes, but as many households’ savings dwindle, more products are also coming to the market to facilitate aging in place. While reverse mortgage volume still remains low in the wake of big bank exits and sluggish home value recovery, one new option has come to the market that has one similar goal of helping people age in their homes. Instead of…

Dwindling Savings Puts Spotlight on Supplemental Income Options

September 27, 2012 / Chris Orestis

Written by Alyssa Gerace of Senior Housing News for ALFA Update In the aftermath of the Great Recession, the need for—and awareness of—supplemental options for paying for senior living has grown substantially, spurring the growth of relationships between senior living providers and senior funding sources. The economic downturn, burgeoning senior population, and ongoing budget crisis have combined to create an environment in which a growing number of seniors struggle to leverage their home equity with a lessening ability to rely on government programs to fund…

Theft By Family Members Most Common Form Of Financial Elder Abuse

September 19, 2012 / Chris Orestis

Family Members Theft Most Common Form Of Financial Elder Abuse

Assisted Living Federation of America (ALFA) A new poll examining financial exploitation of American seniors finds that 79 percent of experts surveyed identified theft or diversion of funds by family members as the most common form of financial abuse. The poll asked state securities regulators, financial planners, health care professionals, social workers, adult protective services workers, law enforcement officials, elder law attorneys, and academics about their experiences with elder abuse. 77 percent of individuals surveyed thought that seniors are very vulnerable to financial abuse, and…

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Senior Issues

The GAO Finds Problems with LTC Benefits Applicant Reviews

August 31, 2012 / Chris Orestis

By Allison Bell/August 27, 2012 Investigators at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) have found that state Medicaid programs are having trouble getting the consumer financial information they need to determine whether residents seeking Medicaid nursing home benefits really are poor enough to qualify for the benefits. Carolyn Yocum, discusses the GAO’s findings in a report on state Medicaid long-term care (LTC) asset screening prepared for Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who is a medical doctor. State Medicaid plans pay for…

Genworth Plans to Raise Some LTCI Rates 50%

August 6, 2012 / Chris Orestis

By Allison Bell August 1, 2012 Executives at Genworth Financial Inc. (NYSE:GNW) said the company plans to ask for for another round of premium rate increases on in-force long-term care insurance (LTCI) policies. The increases would bring the average total premium increase to more than 50% on “older generation” policies over the next 5 years. The company also is seeking increases that would increase the average premium on an early series of “new generation” policies by more than about 25% over the next 5 years….

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Cost of Care, Long Term Care

Another Way to Pay for Long Term Care

July 31, 2012 / Chris Orestis

BRADENTON HERALD by Tom Roberts Paying for long term-care can decimate your finances. Typically, the options for planning to cover these expenses consist of purchasing a long-term care insurance policy or setting aside a large chunk of financial assets. Recently, some new choices to help reduce the risk of not having enough to cover long-term care expenses have become available. These include hybrid long-term care and life insurance, long-term care and annuity, and pooled benefits policies. A fairly new solution is converting an existing life…

How Nursing Home Stays Ravage Finances

July 1, 2012 / Chris Orestis

U.S. News and World Report Retirement healthcare costs get regular attention as the biggest unknown expense most of us will face as we age. Yet at least one of those costs—long-term care—stems from a situation that is statistically well-known. About 70 percent of people now age 65 and older will need some period of extended care during the remainder of their life. Further, according to a recent study, people who think they may need long-term care at some point turn out to be pretty reliable…

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Cost of Care, Nursing Home

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Senior Care Blog

Life Insurance Policies Abandoned by Seniors

How The ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Affects Health Care: Six Questions

Other Options as Long Term Care Insurers Abandon the Marketplace

Family Caregiver Provides Financial Support to Loved Ones Despite Limited Resources

Low Consumer Confidence in Funding Retirement Care

What is Long Term Care?

Seniors Don’t Want to Surrender Life Insurance and go on Medicaid

Converting Life Insurance into Long Term Care Plan Protects Consumers

New Financial Tools Help Seniors Stay at Home

Dwindling Savings Puts Spotlight on Supplemental Income Options

Theft By Family Members Most Common Form Of Financial Elder Abuse

The GAO Finds Problems with LTC Benefits Applicant Reviews

Genworth Plans to Raise Some LTCI Rates 50%

Another Way to Pay for Long Term Care

How Nursing Home Stays Ravage Finances

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